00:00:00
[Music] I really like to solve puzzles and genealogy kind of is like that. It offers you this endless stream of blanks
00:00:24
to fill in. My name is Chelsea Rustad and in 2013 I began my search for my own family
00:00:34
history and it took me down lots of unexpected paths along the way. In 2015, I saw on Ancestry's
00:00:45
Facebook page they were running a contest and uh two winners would receive an Ancestry DNA kit. They contacted me
00:00:52
and said, "Chelsea, you're one of the winners." The ancestry DNA kit arrived. You just kind of spit in a tube and seal
00:01:00
it up and then it was on its way. Did you have any idea just what kind of story your DNA would tell? I really
00:01:13
didn't. I was a genealogy hobbyist like millions of other people in the United States. I kind of accidentally fell into
00:01:21
it. I'm Cece Moore and I'm an investigative genetic genealogologist and that means I use DNA to try to help
00:01:29
law enforcement find violent criminals. When the Golden State Killer suspect was
00:01:34
identified through investigative genetic genealogy, there were many people who said this wasn't a tool that would be
00:01:40
used commonly in law enforcement, and I wanted to prove them wrong. And genetic genealogy has exposed a lot of secrets
00:01:48
that people had hoped would remain secret. Yes. Often times it's someone's deepest, darkest
00:01:56
secret. All I'm thinking is, oh, it's it's going to confirm my ethnic background and maybe I'll get to connect
00:02:04
with some cousins. I was excited. I was just really optimistic about like maybe it will uncover something cool.
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A young Canadian couple takes a road trip from Vancouver Island to Seattle in November 1987.
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18-year-old Tanya Van Kylenborg and her 20-year-old boyfriend Jay girlfriend disappeared during a round trip from
00:02:27
Scadget County has the first half of this puzzling case. In May of 2018, I got a knock on the door and it was two
00:02:37
investigators from Scadget County and I was so confused. What are they investigating? The murder of 18-year-old
00:02:44
Tanya Van Kylinborg. Her body was found in a ditch near the town of boyfriend Jay Cook dead. His body found near
00:02:51
Monroe a few days ago. Strangled with some kind of ligature. They let me know that they are investigating a family
00:02:58
member of mine for murder, a double homicide from 1987. This was a person who was in my family tree.
00:03:07
Did that name appear on any of the suspects list? No, that name had never been across my desk ever. Without
00:03:18
genetic genealogy, would we know who killed Tanya and Jay? No, I know that my DNA played a a big part of that. It's
00:03:29
been a learning curve. This was all brand new. It's the web of matches. It's putting those puzzle pieces together
00:03:36
little by [Music] little. [Music] [Laughter] Heat. Heat. [Music] I have a problem that I'm
00:04:25
relentless and I don't give up. There may be no more dogged investigator than Snomish County cold case detective
00:04:36
Jim Sharp. Especially when it came to the murders of Tanya Van Kylenborg and Jay Cook.
00:04:45
It was probably the most horrendous unsolved case that we had. Tanya Van Kylenborg was an 18-year-old girl. She
00:04:54
just graduated from high school. She was in a new relationship with Jay Cook. On
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November 18th, 1987, the young couple left British Columbia in Jay's parents' van, heading for Seattle, Washington.
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Jay was going to go to Jen's Co Heating in Seattle to pick up some furnace parts
00:05:19
for his dad. They planned to sleep in the van near the store and drive back to Canada the next day.
00:05:27
So, when they didn't show up that evening, the families became concerned. We just had no idea where where they
00:05:34
might be or what might have transpired. Tanya's big brother, John, was at college when he got a call from his
00:05:40
worried father. John, would your sister ever just go off and not call your parents? No, that I don't think that had
00:05:49
ever happened. If the plans had changed and she was going to spend another night, she would have called my parents.
00:05:56
After Tanya and Jay were reported missing, law enforcement began looking for them. Desperate for answers, John
00:06:04
and his father joined the search in Seattle. Something was gravely wrong. I mean, the
00:06:10
obvious things in terms of them being in hospital or something or just simply with a flat tire somewhere, all those
00:06:16
more innocent explanations were pretty much vanishing. On November 24th, 6 days after the
00:06:24
couple disappeared, John's worst fears were confirmed. Tanya's body was found at the
00:06:31
bottom of a ditch in rural Scadget County, some 80 mi north of Seattle. She wasn't wearing any pants or panties,
00:06:42
and her bra was pushed up over her breasts, so it obviously looked like a rape murder. Tanya had been shot in the
00:06:50
head at close range. She rolled down the hill. It was a quick execution. Later that evening, John had to identify
00:07:01
his sister's body. Such a a crushing feeling that all of a sudden you see her lying there. It's
00:07:10
definitely horrific. But we had no idea still about where where was Jay, where was the van, how did this happen, why
00:07:18
did it happen. The next day, Tanya's wallet, the keys to the van, some bullets, and a number
00:07:25
of other items turned up 16 miles away in Bellingham. They have been discarded under the porch of a local tavern next
00:07:34
to the Greyhound bus [Music] station. Police located the van in a nearby parking lot, but Jay was still
00:07:45
missing. The following day, Jay's body was found here underneath Highbridgeidge.
00:07:53
He was about 70 miles south of where Tanya had been found. It was a horrible scene.
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Her 20-year-old boyfriend had been strangled. A pack of cigarettes stuffed down his throat. What did most
00:08:11
investigators think about this killer? I mean, who does something like this? Right. That was the big question. This
00:08:18
was a person who was a real predator and it was believed at the time that it was
00:08:25
probably a serial killer or an ex-convict. But finding that predator would be challenging. Investigators and
00:08:32
forensic scientists had four crime scenes scattered over three counties, but few clues. A bullet casing found on
00:08:41
the hillside near Tanya's body matched those bullets collected at the tavern in Bellingham, but a gun was never
00:08:50
found. This surgical glove was discovered under the porch. Investigators believe the killer wore it
00:08:56
to avoid leaving fingerprints, but he may have been careless. There was a palm print on the back of
00:09:04
the van that they believed hopefully belonged to the suspect. Inside the van, they found what would ultimately be the
00:09:12
most important piece of evidence, the black pants Tanya had been wearing. They found that there was semen on Tanya's
00:09:21
pants. And when they examined the semen, they learned that it couldn't be left from Jay. The sample matched the DNA
00:09:30
found inside Tanya's body and would later be known as individual A. But the only evidence that connected all four
00:09:39
crime scenes, these plastic zip ties found near Tanya and Jay's bodies, under the porch, and inside the van. According
00:09:49
to Detective Sharp, they were part of the killer's rape murder kit. This was a predator that was hunting for a victim
00:09:59
that he wanted to rape. And maybe in his mind, he decided that he was going to kill him,
00:10:07
too. They were two mildmannered, soft-spoken kids. They weren't out to pick a fight with anyone. I mean, both
00:10:15
families were just so devastated. Hoping to find the killer, Tanya's family offered a $50,000 reward for
00:10:23
information. Tips came in, but none panned out. The police, to their credit, were
00:10:32
trying to chase down every sort of theory. Over the years, the theories and false leads would grow, and more than
00:10:41
200 names would fill the case file. Some were convicted felons and then there was Charles Sinclair.
00:10:50
He was believed to be a serial killer across the western United States. There was also an anonymous writer who sent
00:10:58
threatening letters to Jay and Tanya's families claiming to be the killer. Yeah, it was just unfathomable to think
00:11:05
that, you know, somebody not only had done these murders but then was going to continue taunting the families with
00:11:10
these letters. But every suspect's DNA was compared to individual A's profile and none matched. The goal was to try to
00:11:19
figure out who did this seaman sample belong to. Lisa Collins, a forensic scientist
00:11:28
with the Washington State Patrol, uploaded individual A's profile to COTUS, the FBI's national offender
00:11:36
database. As the years went by, just complete silence. It's disheartening. You just um are afraid that this might
00:11:45
be one of those cases that's never going to be solved. And then more than 30 years after Tanya and Jay were killed,
00:11:52
there's a break in the case. I was skeptical. I was hopeful, but I was skeptical. And I I'm a believer now.
00:12:07
[Music] We had those original semen samples from the pants and then from Tanya's body
00:12:26
trying to figure out who this sample may belong to. That was the tedious and hard
00:12:31
part. The man police believe killed Tanya Van Kylenborg and Jay Cook left behind a
00:12:39
forensic calling card, says Lisa Collins, but still managed to elude capture for
00:12:50
years. And then in 2017, detective Jim Sharp heard about an innovative tool developed by Parabon
00:12:59
Nanolabs that uses DNA evidence to predict the genetic traits of an unknown suspect. It's called snapshot
00:13:10
phenotyping. They gather all that information and they end up making a snapshot of what an
00:13:18
individual with all those traits might look similar to. Parabon was hired to use individual A's DNA to create this
00:13:27
composite sketch which gave Sharp some clues as to what the suspect could look like at the ages of 25, 45, and 65. But
00:13:38
he still didn't have a name. Investigators in California say DNA evidence led them to one of the
00:13:45
country's most notorious serial killers. And then in 2018, a stunning arrest in California opened new doors for law
00:13:55
enforcement. The so-called Golden State Killer. The man responsible for numerous
00:14:01
rapes and murders was finally apprehended after 43 years using genetic genealogy.
00:14:09
Did a little light bulb go over your head at that moment? Oh yeah, big light bulb. The Golden State Killer DNA had
00:14:17
been uploaded to Jed Match, a genetic database that allows users of various consumer test kits to share and compare
00:14:25
their DNA. This is fantastic. I need to get on this. [Music] Parabon agreed to upload individual A's
00:14:36
DNA to Jed Match and called in genetic genealogologist CC Moore. She's known for her work on the PBS show Finding
00:14:44
Your Roots. So then what did you do? DNA. DNA. So all we have is DNA. We're going to turn and she's famed for skills
00:14:52
at mapping family trees. But this was her first criminal case. I had had a lot of doubts whether this was the right
00:15:01
thing for me to do and I finally made the decision, okay, I'm I'm going to do this, but a lot was writing on that
00:15:10
case. It was a case she had been following for years and felt a personal connection to Moore's parents were from
00:15:18
the Pacific Northwest and she was the same age as Tanya Van Kylinborg. She was killed right when I was
00:15:26
graduating high school and going on to college and my life was just really beginning and hers ended so tragically.
00:15:34
And so I think it always stuck with me. On Friday, April 27th, 2018, individual A's DNA file was
00:15:44
uploaded to Jed Match. It's compared against everyone that's participating in that database. And so what they're
00:15:51
looking for are long segments of identical DNA between two people. Sometimes the match list will show up
00:15:58
right away and sometimes it takes a couple days. So I stayed up really late that Friday night. I kept checking and
00:16:04
there was no matches. The next morning, Moore logged on to see if there was a list and there was. And so we're hoping
00:16:13
for at least a second cousin or closer at the top of that list. And we used to call that being struck by lightning.
00:16:19
Were you struck by lightning in this case? Twice. We were struck struck by lightning twice.
00:16:25
On the list were two people who shared enough DNA with individual A to be his second
00:16:32
cousins. And what was that? What was that feeling like? It was pretty exciting and scary.
00:16:40
In this case, the cousins shared DNA with individual A, but not with each other, which meant they're related to
00:16:48
him on different branches of his family tree. But to figure out who he was, Moore first had to find out who they
00:16:58
were. Now, fortunately, one of the people at the top of that list had a really unique
00:17:04
name. And what was her name? Chelsea Rustad. Remember, Chelsea Rustad had taken that
00:17:11
ancestry DNA test and then went a step further. You can download your raw DNA file to your computer and then upload it
00:17:20
to Jed Match. I just had no inkling at all that there were secret relatives I didn't know about or mysteries to
00:17:29
uncover. Neither did the other second cousin whom Moore was also able to identify but has
00:17:36
chosen to remain anonymous. And then I built the family trees of those top two matches. And surprisingly quickly I
00:17:46
discovered how they converged. It only took me 2 hours to come to the identification of who I believed to be
00:17:54
Tanya and Jay's killer. [Music] This is a person who had eluded capture investigation for 31
00:18:05
years and you were able to identify this person in 2 hours. That's the power of genetic genealogy. Yeah. But how how
00:18:15
sure were you? I was very sure. But isn't that scary, Cece? Because your work might end up with this person in
00:18:25
prison, right? And at that moment, I'm the only person in the world who knows that he's probably guilty of this crime,
00:18:35
other than him, of course. And so, it is a super heavy burden. Monday morning, April 30th, Detective Jim Sharf got the
00:18:44
news. We've got it narrowed down to one guy. And I'm thinking, I don't believe this. And my first thought is, who's the
00:18:59
[Music] guy, 30 plus years, dozens of dead ends, hundreds of false leads. And then in April 2018, Cece
00:19:20
Moore got on a computer and out of the billions of people on Earth identified through genetic genealogy, the one man
00:19:28
she believed killed Jay Cook and Tanya Van Kylenborg. Who was the person you identified? William Earl Talbett
00:19:40
II. William Earl Talbot II. When detective Jim Sharp heard the name, he ran it through the system and was
00:19:48
surprised to learn that Talbot had no felony convictions. It was a new name that we'd never heard
00:19:55
of before, but it was sure nice when we found out that he only lived 7 miles from the bridge where Jay's body was
00:20:03
found. Sharf also learned that in 1987, Talbet, 24 at the time, worked as a delivery
00:20:11
driver and made stops near where Jay and Tanya were headed to pick up that furnace part and says that Talbot was
00:20:19
fired a few months before the murders. So, it makes sense that he was down in that area prowling around and probably
00:20:29
ran into Jay and Tanya. But Sharf needed more than old work records and genetic genealogy.
00:20:36
It's really just a tip. It's an investigative lead. To make an arrest, Sharf needed to
00:20:43
be sure that the DNA left at the crime scene by the man they knew only as individual A matched William Talbett's.
00:20:52
So somehow Sharf had to obtain a fresh DNA sample from Talbot himself. We were going to follow him until he
00:21:02
dropped or threw away anything that had touched his mouth because we wanted his saliva on it as the best type of DNA
00:21:11
source. Investigators learned Talbot now drove a semi and they began tailing his
00:21:19
truck. One day about a week later, they watched as Talbot stopped at a red light
00:21:24
and opened the truck door. The light changes to green. He slams the door and drives away. And there's a white paper
00:21:33
cup laying on the street. It's blowing around in the wind. So, they jump out. They go over and they collect the cup
00:21:41
and they call me. Sharf rushed the paper cup to forensic scientist Lisa Collins with the Washington State Patrol. They
00:21:50
wanted me to test this cup and just see if I could get a DNA profile from it. Sharf left the cup at the lab to await
00:21:58
the results. CC Moore had already begun searching for Talbot online and quickly found his sisters and father on social
00:22:08
media. I couldn't find hardly anything about him. You know, no marriages. I could find very little footprint online
00:22:16
at all. And that was a little unusual. Years earlier, someone else who knew nothing about the investigation had made
00:22:25
a similar search. Chelsea Rustad. In 2013, long before she submitted her DNA to any websites, Chelsea Googled her
00:22:36
grandpa's sister, Blanch, and found a lot of information online. Her daughter was uh Patty Talbot, and Patty had three
00:22:45
daughters and one son, and the son was William Earl Talbot the second. These were Chelsea's second cousins, the
00:22:52
Talbetts. Chelsea friended two of the sisters on Facebook, but their brother William was a mystery. This guy was just
00:23:01
kind of a question mark, off the grid. Chelsea figured William was estranged from his family, but didn't give it much
00:23:09
thought, even after she uploaded her DNA to ancestry.com and then Jed Match. So, she
00:23:16
was stunned that day in 2018 when those investigators showed up on her doorstep and asked to see her research.
00:23:26
And I'm just kind of like, wait, one of you're saying one of my family members is connected to a murder. And they're
00:23:32
saying, you know, yeah, it's uh from 1987 and the person of interest is William Earl Talbot.
00:23:43
and I'm just kind of grasping the scope of this and, you know, sickened thinking
00:23:47
about it. The investigators wanted to know her impression of William Talbot. I told them my theory that I think he's
00:23:55
estranged. Detective Sharf got more details from Talbot's friends and family. He had a history of anger and
00:24:04
violence when he was younger. He was a really angry kid. In audio taped interviews with Talbot sisters, Sharf
00:24:12
learned Williams troubles began when he was 11 and his father was seriously hurt
00:24:17
in a motorcycle accident. The sisters say William began to lash out. He beat me up, uh, broke my telephone, and I had
00:24:27
to go to the hospital. Another sister says William hurt her, too. Still, she said she didn't think he was capable of
00:24:35
murder. Yeah, he could be a bone head, but not to the point of attacking or killing somebody. No.
00:24:46
But would the DNA on the paper cup tell a different story? That was on Detective
00:24:52
Sharp's mind when he returned to the police lab and Lisa Collins shared the results of her testing. I said, "The
00:25:01
profile from the cup matches individual A. It was just an amazing moment. Yeah. What did that feel like, Jim? I got
00:25:13
tears in my eyes. I'm like, I can't believe it. It's so emotional. And then I'm like, yeah, we
00:25:20
got him. And so on May 17th, 2018, nearly 31 years after two carefree teenagers set out on a road trip and
00:25:33
never returned, Detective Sharp arrested William Talbett. And he says, "John, we've got him." Sharp called Tanya's
00:25:42
brother, John, right away, saying that at long last, individual A was in handcuffs.
00:25:49
Yeah. Yeah, I mean that's when it really sent a chill down my spine. It was pretty overwhelming to think that it had
00:25:54
all culminated in that moment right there of 31 years later. The next day, William Talbot was charged with Tanya's
00:26:02
murder. Charges for Jay's murder soon followed. Jay's sister spoke at a press conference. It's hard to put into words
00:26:10
this feeling of relief, of joy, of of great sorrow that this arrest brings. Jay's mom said the moment was
00:26:22
bittersweet. On one hand, we're close to closure, and on the other, we're still at a loss, and
00:26:30
I don't have my only son, Jay. Detective Sharf told the group he was grateful for breakthroughs in DNA
00:26:39
technology. If it hadn't been for genetic genealogy, we wouldn't be standing here today. But would evidence
00:26:46
obtained through genetic genealogy be allowed in court. [Music] [Music] Okay, let's go.
00:27:12
More than three decades had passed since those dark November days in 1987 when Jay and Tanya were found murdered.
00:27:21
William Earl Talbot is now accused of killing both. Now with William Talbot's arrest, Tanya's brother, John Van
00:27:28
Kylenborg, was finally able to face the man suspected of his sister's murder. And what did you think the first time
00:27:35
you saw him? He just reviled. I mean, it it's hard to control your emotions. Talbet pleaded not guilty to two counts
00:27:47
of aggravated murder. And so, in June of 2019, his trial began in the Snowomage County Superior Court. It was the first
00:27:57
case ever to go to a jury trial where the suspect had been identified through investigative genetic genealogy.
00:28:04
Although the Golden State killer had been identified first, Talbett's trial would be held before his and CC Moore
00:28:12
was acutely aware of how much was writing on the outcome. We didn't know at that point how genetic genealogy was
00:28:19
going to be treated in court because there was no precedence. The prosecution was hoping to make it a non-issue. I was
00:28:26
going to minimize the exposure by kind of downplaying the importance of the genetic genealogy, knowing full well
00:28:33
that was the part of the case that was perhaps most intriguing to people. Chief criminal deputy Matthew Baldock was the
00:28:40
lead prosecutor on Talbot's case. Did you? He approached the defense with a proposal. They would stipulate to the
00:28:48
jury that the DNA from individual A had come from William Talbot as an agreed upon fact. Much to my surprise, they
00:28:57
agreed. It was a major victory for the prosecution. The use of genetic genealogy to locate a suspect would not
00:29:06
be contested in court. That was a huge relief. Really, it was the best possible outcome. So, you admit that that is
00:29:14
William Talbot's DNA. Am I correct? You're correct. That was a stipulation. Talbot's attorneys, John Scott and
00:29:21
Rachel Ford, would argue that there's actually an innocent explanation for that DNA. Every indication of the DNA
00:29:30
found from my client indicated consensual sex. Yes, they admit that Talbot had sex with Tanya, but they deny
00:29:39
he raped or killed her or Jay Cook. They point out that Tanya and Jay were missing for several days before their
00:29:47
bodies were found, implying that the couple must have encountered their killer later on. Tell me what you think
00:29:55
then happened to Tanya and Jay. We don't know what happened. These kids were off
00:30:00
to an adventure. Whether they went to a bar, a restaurant, uh some sort of club to meet people, I don't know.
00:30:09
Tabet's lawyers say it's understandable that Talabet might not remember meeting Tanya or even where he was 30 years ago,
00:30:18
but it's significant. They say that investigators were unable to link Talbot to the type of gun that killed Tanya,
00:30:26
the pack of cigarettes, or the materials used to strangle Jay. So William Talbot's defense is basically
00:30:34
that he had sex with Tanya and then somehow somebody else killed her. That's not William Talbot's defense. William
00:30:42
Talbot's defense is that there is insufficient evidence to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But
00:30:48
prosecutors say they do have sufficient evidence. There's Talbot's DNA from Tanya's body and her pants. The fact
00:30:57
that he lived just seven miles from where Jay's body was found. and the palm print on the van that police say was a
00:31:05
match to Talbot. Then there are the zip ties found at all four crime scenes. Baldock
00:31:13
says they prove the connection between Jay's murder and Tanya's and the van. What do you believe the zip ties were
00:31:21
used for? I believe that Mr. Talbet had Jay and Tanya in the van for some period
00:31:27
of time after he abducted or kidnapped them. And I believe that he used the zip ties to restrain them. As part of his
00:31:35
investigation, Detective Sharf had hoped to obtain a usable DNA profile from any
00:31:41
of the zip ties. There had been a mixture of DNA on one of the zip ties that was found in Jay's van, and they
00:31:51
weren't able to discern who all the profiles belong to. But mid-trial, forensic scientist Lisa
00:31:58
Collins had decided to run that DNA mixture into a new software program to see if she could find a match. And to
00:32:07
her surprise, she did. When I compared William Talbot's DNA profile to the mixture obtained from the zip tie that
00:32:17
was found in the victim's van, he was included as a possible contributor. But because her discovery came during
00:32:26
trial, prosecutors felt it was too late to present to the jury, fearing it would
00:32:31
delay the trial, Talbot elected not to take the stand, and his lawyers were hopeful that the jury would agree there
00:32:40
was not enough evidence to prove him guilty. In their closing arguments, the defense told the jury that police were
00:32:48
unreasonably focused on the DNA. They never stopped to consider that perhaps the person who left the DNA was
00:32:57
not the murderer. Attorney Ford argued that Detective Jim Sharf had tunnel vision. Is it at all
00:33:07
possible that yes, that was William Talbot's DNA, but he didn't kill either one of them? Is that possible? Sure. Is
00:33:16
it reasonable? No. She was found without her pants or underwear. So just practically speaking is the claim that
00:33:24
Mr. Talbet had consensual sex with her and then she got dressed and the person who ultimately killed her undressed her.
00:33:31
Baldock says the only reasonable theory is that Talbot had overpowered the couple with a plan of raping Tanya and
00:33:39
then killed them both. He had zip ties, he had gloves, he had a firearm, he had ammunition. After a
00:33:48
two-w weekekl long trial, the jury began to deliberate, but they didn't come back
00:33:54
that first day or the second. You realize this is really going to be the moment of truth.
00:34:11
[Music] On that third day of deliberations, the families of Jay Cook and Tanya Van
00:34:27
Kylenborg finally got news. There was a verdict. [Music] We the jury find the defendant William
00:34:37
Earl II guilty of the crime of firstdegree murder as charged. Guilty. William Talbot had been found
00:34:45
guilty of the aggravated murder of Tanya Van Kylenborg and guilty of the aggravated murder of Jay Cook. Just to
00:34:54
hear the foreman of a jury say guilty was surreal. CeCe Moore wasn't in the courtroom, but she later saw video of
00:35:03
Tanya's brother John's reaction. It was as if I could see a physical burden lift
00:35:08
off his shoulders. He had told me how he had carried this burden for years. You know, he was the only sibling. He was
00:35:17
her older brother. And so that was incredible to see. Chelsea Rustad had never spoken to
00:35:27
either Jay or Tanya's family. But with their blessing, she decided to attend Talbot Sentencing, where she first met
00:35:35
John. kind of I was really nervous. He looked a little bit nervous as well. Thank you so much. She's effectively a
00:35:53
family member of the murderer. So, I think it was brave of her to take that risk. Thank you for for coming today.
00:36:02
At the sentencing, Jay Cook's mother told the judge about the grief she has carried all these years. Some of us
00:36:09
wanted a shirt or a sweater. You could wear them. You could put them to your nose and smell
00:36:16
him. I still have that old sweater in my dressing drawer. The sentence was mandatory. Thank you. The court's only
00:36:24
possible sentence on each count is to impose a sentence of life without possibility of release. Two lifetimes in
00:36:32
prison without parole. Chelsea says her sympathy is for Jay and Tanya's families
00:36:38
despite her genetic ties to Talbot. All right. His dad wasn't there. His sisters
00:36:45
weren't there. He had a family member in the audience and I was there supporting
00:36:49
the victims. Chelsea Rustad is proud that her DNA helped bring a killer to justice. But there are some who have
00:36:57
concerns about this new frontier in police work. It might be that you're not the Golden
00:37:05
State Killer, but it also might be that you don't want law enforcement scrutinizing your entire family. Law
00:37:13
professor Andrea Roth is head of the UC Berkeley Center for Law and Technology and says one of the problems she sees is
00:37:22
that the DNA used for genetic genealogy can be very revealing. This is DNA testing that tells you a lot about a
00:37:31
person's very sensitive information, their medical history, information about familial lines that the families
00:37:38
themselves don't even know. Professor Roth does agree that in cases like this, genetic genealogy can be an effective
00:37:46
tool for the public good. But she cautions that most states have no restrictions on its
00:37:54
use. There's the concern that the government could use your DNA for some reason other than a criminal
00:38:00
investigation that it shouldn't be using it for. Giving it to insurance companies
00:38:05
or using DNA to find out who was at a protest meeting. We don't have evidence right now of the government doing that,
00:38:12
but um those are are reasons that somebody might want to think about before they decide to upload their DNA.
00:38:20
Because of this lack of legal oversight, Roth has deep reservations about sharing
00:38:25
DNA on public genealogy websites. Would you not upload your DNA? I would not. But it may already be too late for
00:38:36
Professor Roth or many other Americans to truly opt out. Experts estimate that today more than 90% of white Americans
00:38:46
can be identified using genetic genealogy. And that's because, says CC Moore, those of European descent are
00:38:55
well represented on websites like Jed Match. We have enough DNA. We can identify almost anyone of Northwest
00:39:04
European ancestry. Even if it takes hours, dozens of hours, hundreds of hours, we'll get
00:39:12
there. But in this case, after more than 30 years with no solid leads, Moore was
00:39:18
able to use Chelsea Rustad's DNA to help locate a viable suspect in just 2 hours. Was this the fastest you've ever
00:39:29
found a suspect? It was to this day, 3 and 1/2 years later, hundreds of cases later, this was the most straightforward
00:39:37
case I've ever worked. And that is amazing. Detective Sharf believes that this case changed the face of cold case
00:39:45
investigations forever. Genetic genealogy is the best tool that's come around since DNA. You don't need a Cotus
00:39:54
database to get your match. [Music] For Jay and Tanya's families, it means they finally have some answers and a
00:40:05
measure of peace. On Tanya's grave, her parents inscribed the final line from a poem she wrote when she was
00:40:14
17. There is a place that I know of where up above there flies a dove. And slowly as it turns to dawn, she parts
00:40:24
her wings and then she's [Music] gone. She was growing up and and maturing and spreading her wings and
00:40:37
getting her feet under her and and then she was gone. You miss her still, don't you?
00:40:45
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. [Music] 48 hours. To miss it would be a crime. Were you at all prepared for what
00:41:06
happened in this case? [Music]